Medi­um band K2K Al­liance & Part­ners are the first ever win­ners of the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion’s Over­all Band of the Year com­pe­ti­tion.

K2K had long dom­i­nat­ed the Medi­um Band cat­e­go­ry and won their fifth straight medi­um Band of the Year ti­tle with 1371 points yes­ter­day. How­ev­er, they were al­so the high­est scor­ing band over­all, hence the NCC’s an­nounce­ment that they too were the Over­all Band of the Year, a new cat­e­go­ry ini­ti­at­ed in this year’s com­pe­ti­tion.

How­ev­er, band lead­ers Kathy and Karen Nor­man said they were not ex­pect­ing the ho­n­our af­ter it was agreed among band lead­ers and the NCC that this new in­no­v­a­tive for­mat would be in­tro­duced.

“It’s like a David and Go­liath sto­ry, where­by you don’t have to be the biggest our the largest to make an im­pact. A small band or a medi­um band could ac­tu­al­ly make an im­pact in Trinidad and To­ba­go and that’s an im­por­tant sto­ry to tell, that al­though you may not be the biggest, even the small­est, the com­mon­est per­son can ac­tu­al­ly make an im­pact in the cre­ativ­i­ty of Car­ni­val and be­yond,” Kathy Nor­man told the T&T Guardian at their Diego Mar­tin mas camp yes­ter­day.

“We are over the moon ex­cit­ed. We are so re­lieved. We feel hon­est­ly ho­n­oured and blessed. The jour­ney thus far has been so dif­fi­cult, we could not have done any­thing with­out our fam­i­ly who have be­come the truest back­bone, even the mas­quer­aders who have be­come like our ex­tend­ed fam­i­ly,” said her twin sis­ter and fel­low band­leader Karen.

The band did not have a cel­e­bra­tion at their camp yes­ter­day but urged their mas­quer­aders to come out to cel­e­brate their win to­day.

The Lost Tribe’s pre­sen­ta­tion Taj mean­while un­seat­ed Ron­nie and Caro as Large Band of the Year win­ner by one point, scor­ing 1304 to Ron­nie and Caro’s 1303.

Yes­ter­day, the band’s cre­ative di­rec­tor Valmi­ki Ma­haraj said they were over­joyed.

“This was a very very emo­tion­al year for us, it was a big year for us. We put a lot of hard work in­to it, a lot of emo­tions in­to it. This is just an ic­ing on top of the cake hon­est­ly, peo­ple had a great time on the road yes­ter­day (Tues­day) so I felt a win yes­ter­day see­ing the mas­quer­aders on the road yes­ter­day.”

The win was ded­i­cat­ed to Ma­haraj’s moth­er Bas­daye Ma­haraj, who passed away in late 2017 and Michael “Un­cle Mike” No­bre­ga, who died in Feb­ru­ary 2018.

Large Band of the Year:

1. The Lost Tribe – Taj (1304)

2. Ron­nie & Caro – Let’s Go To­ba­go (1303)

3. (tie) Pa­parazzi & Show­time Car­ni­val (1202)

Medi­um Band of the Year:

1. K2K Al­liance and Part­ners – Through Stain Glass Win­dows (1371)

2. Mas Pas­sion – Hid­den King­dom (1202)

3. Jus Wee & Friends – Imag­ine (1200)

Small Band of the Year:

1. Trib­al Con­nec­tion – The Great Gath­er­ing (1213)

2. Utopia Mas – Spir­it of Eu­pho­ria (1156)

3. Cheyenne Peo­ple – Cheyenne Bus­tle Dancers (1143)